Contemporary Authors

Review – The Rampart Guards by Wendy Terrien Leave a comment
March 21, 2016 by ceresbooksworld

J - the rampart Guards

The Rampart Guards by Wendy Terrien

Book one in the Adventures of Jason Lex chronicles

Publisher: Camashea Press

Publication Date: February 26th, 2016

Source: Ebook from Roger Charlie

Rating: 4 hearts

Synopsis (from goodreads)
After his mom disappears, Jason Lex and his family move to a small town where he has no friends, no fun, no life. Things get worse when he’s chased by weird flying creatures that only he can see—Jason thinks he’s losing it.

But when Jason discovers new information about his family, he’s stunned to learn that creatures like Skyfish, Kappa, and the Mongolian Death Worm aren’t just stories on the Internet—they’re real and they live unseen alongside the human race. Many of these creatures naturally emit energy capable of incinerating humans. An invisible shield keeps these creatures hidden and protects the human race from their threatening force, but someone, or some thing, is trying to destroy it.

Unsure who he can trust, Jason is drawn into the fight to save the people closest to him, and he finds help in surprising places. Confronted with loss, uncertainty, and a devastating betrayal, Jason must make a gut-wrenching decision:

Who lives, and who dies.

Review
I’m not a middle grade genre but I like some and this one is good, there is a lot of actions, some mysteries and family problems.

The Lex family is composed by the mother, the father, two sons, Kyle and Jason and a daughter Della. I won’t tell you the story because the synopsis is enough but there is some family bond in the story and maybe you can trust anyone.

I like Jason, he is mature for his age, and he’s only fourteen years old and has a lot on his shoulder. He sees things and he’s talking about them to his uncle, he’s discovering a lot of things about his family but he doesn’t really believe in it. He has a good friend, Sadie, she’s helping him a lot to think and to take good decisions.

Alexander is a great character, he’s a little creepy in the beginning but I like him, he’s important to the story and his dog Finn is so great, without her, the story wouldn’t be the same, she’s saving life of a lot of people.

All the secondary characters are very realistic, the good and the bad ones, you don’t have to love them but they give a thing to story.

Wendy Terrien has written a real adventure with some great hero, with suspense, friendship and mystery. The characters are young but very realistic in their reactions and feelings, there is no love attraction because fourteen is young but I like the relation between Sadie and Jason.

There will be a sequel and I will read it because even if the book doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, there are a lot of questions without answer. I need to know more about The Cryptics, The League of Governors and the Bad guy.

I definitely recommend this book if you want to go on an adventure full of mysterious creatures.

About the author
Wendy Terrien has been writing stories since she was in grade school. Her debut novel The Rampart Guards (February 26, 2016) is the first in her urban fantasy series.

Inspired by an episode of Bones that suspected a killer to be a fabled chupacabra, Wendy was fascinated and dove into research about cryptozoology – the study of animals that may or may not exist, or cryptids. Pouring over stories, videos and photographs of creatures others had seen all over the world, Wendy developed her own story to share with middle grade, young adult and grown-up readers.

Raised in Salt Lake City, Wendy graduated from the University of Utah and soon transplanted to Colorado where she completed her MBA at the University of Denver. Having applied her marketing expertise to the financial and network security industries, it wasn’t until a career coach stepped in that she fully immersed herself in her passion for writing. Wendy began attending writers conferences, workshops and retreats.

She regularly participates in two critique groups and is the Secretary of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and a member of Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. In 2014, she was a finalist in the San Francisco Writer’s Contest and in March, will release a novella in the anthology Tick Tock: Seven Tales of Time.

Wendy lives in Colorado with her husband Kevin and their three dogs: Maggie, Shea and Boon. All three of her dogs are rescues and Wendy is passionate about promoting shelter adoptions. If you’re ever in Colorado, you may even be able to spot her by her “Adopt a Shelter Pet” license plates.

The League of Governors

Chronicle Two–Jason in the Adventures of Jason Lex

(Terrien is releasing two books simultaneously: The League of Governors, and Clan Calling, both are sequels to The Rampart Guards)

As The League of Governors begins, Jason Lex is still recovering from the battle that ensued when his mother betrayed her family and tried to wipe out the human race in The Rampart Guards. But the scars on his hands have scarcely healed when his father, Zachary, and sister, Della, go missing and Jason and his uncle Alexander hightail it to League headquarters in London to find them. Jason quickly discovers there is something sinister behind Zachary and Della’s disappearance when the two reappear but aren’t really the same. In fact, no one in the League is quite normal. And that is saying something when “normal” includes Yetis and Kappas and Ahools. You would think all of the fanged, clawed, poisonous cryptids are what Jason needs to be afraid of at the League. You would be wrong. It’s the little purple pills.

In the second book of her urban fantasy series, Wendy Terrien takes us on<< an engaging, exciting adventure to the League of Governors and the secrecy and wickedness hiding therein.>> Even though the narrative is easily solid enough to stand on the strength of its characters and action alone, the unique elements of the fantastic that Terrien incorporates are what make The League of Governors stand <> The invisible buildings and mind-controlling, power-enhancing serum are clever and well thought out. The Orwellian wristbands that everyone in the League wears are as brilliant as they are terrifying, as they may not be all that far-fetched. In addition, it’s refreshing that Terrien mixes in a wide variety of cryptids; in recent years, one might be forgiven for thinking there were no interesting creatures in all of myth and folklore other than vampires and werewolves. From cover to cover, Wendy Terrien’s The League of Governors is a thoroughly entertaining, satisfying read. Those who enjoyed The Rampart Guards will not be disappointed, and for those whom this is your first Wendy Terrien novel, it will likely not be your last.

THE CLAN CALLING
SADIE IN THE ADVENTURES OF JASON LEX, CHRONICLE 2
Wendy Terrien
Camashea Press (Aug 11, 2017)
Softcover $15.99 (295pp)
978-0-9969031-9-6

Clarion Rating: 3 out of 5

Terrien’s is a unique world with strong character relationships and a chilling underlying mystery.

Wendy Terrien’s The Clan Calling is an eerie urban fantasy novel driven by character relationships and a desperate desire for answers.

Sadie is a normal teenage girl living with her grandmother, but her proximity to her friend Jason opens her up to a whole new world that other people are blissfully unaware of. After a series of disruptive events—Jason leaves town, a mysterious man shows up in her neighborhood, her grandmother falls ill, and people keep falling magically asleep—Sadie is thrust into a complicated mystery that threatens the security of the life she knows.

Despite being part of a series, the novel stands on its own, with enough backstory and character descriptions to make it easy to navigate without reading connected titles.

While the mechanics of the story are interesting and unique, the plot unfolds in a slow way that leaves much of the story underdeveloped. This is a world in which cryptids like Bigfoot are real, and though Sadie is familiar with these things through Jason, she is still painfully trapped within her world of normality.

The first third of the book focuses almost entirely on her school life and heavy descriptions of the foods she and her grandmother eat. Even after her grandmother gets sick and weird phenomena begin to occur, Sadie continues to justify these things with simple, real-world explanations.

As a protagonist, <>. She exerts next to no agency of her own. Heavy foreshadowing only serves to make her lack of knowledge and curiosity more jarring.

The story’s strength lies with its character relationships, which drive the story forward. Charming comments, one-liners, and actions tie the story together and help develop sympathy for Sadie as a character.

<>, as when Sadie calls 911 to report a threat to her grandmother, and they dispatch an officer to watch her without even inquiring into the nature of the threat. At times, conflicts seem too convenient.

Characters speak mostly in clichés and exposition. Dialogue is heavily given to relating backstory in an terse fashion.

Throughout the book, Jason is on his own adventures. They occur off the page but seem to be where the real story lies. Sadie’s story isn’t nearly as compelling, and Jason seems to be the more believable character. <

THE LEAGUE OF GOVERNORS
JASON IN THE ADVENTURES OF JASON LEX, CHRONICLE 2
Wendy Terrien
Camashea Press (Aug 11, 2017)
Softcover $15.99 (333pp)
978-0-9969031-5-8

Clarion Rating: 4 out of 5

<

<> The League of Governors, <> in Wendy Terrien’s Adventures of Jason Lex series. This is a strong story of self-discovery for the young, powerful protagonist.

The book’s early chapters give glimpses of preceding events, including a tragic turn for Jason’s mother and his discovery of inherited powers that allow him to summon and control electrical currents through his fingertips. Jason is learning to harness this power as he trains as a new Rampart Guard, part of the force that maintains the balance between humans and cryptids—creatures of folklore including Yeti and Bigfoot. But his little sister, Della, is traumatized by the family’s recent past, earning a summons from the League of Governors, the group that oversees the tenuous treaty between cryptids and humans.

The novel takes the teen and his family to the League of Governors’ London headquarters. Like the creatures it houses, the headquarters exists unseen by most humans populating the city. But Jason loses contact with his father and sister, who had traveled ahead of him. Soon, both he and his Uncle Alexander are gravely injured.

As Jason slowly recovers, he finds himself largely alone to ferret out the difference between fact and fiction, friend and foe. Meanwhile, Alexander lies at death’s door, and Jason’s father and sister remain disturbingly distant in more ways than one. Even worse, he begins to uncover a plot that could compromise the freedom and future of humans and cryptids alike.

<

Still, the suspense over whether Jason will be caught serves to move the story forward at a satisfying pace. Jason struggles to understand his own family history and the strange new world that his unusual inheritance has made him an integral part of.<> who has ever questioned their place in the world. New characters are well developed, while the endearing, complex existing cast continues to evolve.

The League of Governors is an appealing, authentic coming-of-age story about understanding and embracing the blessings and the baggage of one’s inheritance.

Reviewed by Charlene Oldham
July 26, 2017

THE RAMPART GUARDS
CHRONICLE ONE IN THE ADVENTURES OF JASON LEX
Wendy Terrien
Camashea Press (Feb 26, 2016)
Hardcover $25.00 (264pp)
978-0-9969031-0-3

2016 INDIES Finalist
Finalist, Young Adult Fiction (Children's)
Clarion Rating: 5 out of 5

Terrien has created an intriguing world that seamlessly integrates the fantastic with the realistic and is supported by a relatable cast of characters.

<> make Wendy Terrien’s The Rampart Guards: Chronicle One in the Adventures of Jason Lex an enjoyable and imaginative beginning to what is sure to be a fantastic series.

Jason Lex has a lot to deal with the summer he turns fourteen. His mom, who had begun behaving strangely, suddenly disappears, throwing the family into turmoil. Then his dad decides to move the family to a quiet, boring farm town that comes complete with a resident oddball who wanders around filming the sky and mumbling to himself. As if that’s not bad enough, Jason has recently begun seeing strange “Skyfish” that no one else can see and feeling odd surges of electricity in his hands. He thinks he’s losing it, but soon learns that his family has been holding on to a great many secrets related to his experiences —secrets that<< will change his opinions, his beliefs, and his loyalties.>>

Terrien has created an absorbing and intriguing world, seamlessly integrating the fantastic with the realistic, supported by a relatable cast of characters. Jason in particular is well developed; his growing friendship with a girl, Sadie, is conveyed well, as is his protective and sweet relationship with his little sister and his occasionally rocky relationship with his father. His growth from a typical fourteen-year-old struggling with life challenges into a young man who learns to overcome them is well realized. Jason’s journey is engrossingly conveyed. He deals with <> before learning to embrace a destiny he never imagined.

The writing style is smooth and the plot’s progression is well paced, making it easy to become invested in the individual fates of members of the Lex family and their friends, including a uniquely trained dog that plays an integral role in the story. The intriguing fantasy aspects are vividly drawn, and the overall premise is credibly introduced. The different layers of the world-beneath-the-world that Terrien creates are revealed slowly and inventively, and skillfully set the foundation for the adventures to come.

Themes of good versus evil and the importance of family bonds are smoothly interwoven throughout, and the narrative tension builds at a good pace, flowing toward a satisfying conclusion. This appealing novel is sure to find an appreciative audience.

Reviewed by Jeannine Chartier Hanscom
January 14, 2016